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Baseball

World Series-bound Astros dared to be different

Houston Astros' Jose Altuve is sprayed with champagne after Game 7 of baseball's American League Championship Series against the New York Yankees Saturday, Oct. 21, 2017, in Houston. The Astros won 4-0 to win the series. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

HOUSTON — They were ridiculed as one of the worst teams in baseball, a franchise on the verge of making 100-loss seasons seem routine.

And then, when they tried to fix it, the Houston Astros were busted in some quarters of conventional baseball management for going about it the wrong way with a revolutionary infrastructure that took analytics to a new stratosphere.

And now look who’s going to the World Series.

Under the stewardship of general manager Jeff Luhnow, the Astros ignored the noise and since 2012 steadily built the versatile group that on Sunday boarded a charter for Los Angeles to face the Dodgers when the series gets under way on Tuesday.

“We’re a baseball team first,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said following Saturday’s Game 7 win over the New York Yankees to capture the ALCS. “We’re pretty book smart, but that’s not a bad thing.

“(Luhnow) and the group in the front office, they’re as progressive as anybody in the game. Maybe five years ago, that was seen as different. Now it’s seen as something to copy. You either evolve with it or you become a dinosaur in this game.”

The Astros didn’t get to the World Series for just the second time in franchise history without some serious pain and suffering.

Luhnow was at the helm of that 107-loss season in 2012, a second consecutive season in which they hit the century club for defeats and a rock-bottom campaign if there ever was one. Hired in December of 2011, he took stock of the franchise and then went to work marrying his background as an engineer and management consultant with the baseball savvy of those around him.

He essentially wiped out the entire front office in 2012 — sound familiar Toronto Blue Jays observers? — and replaced them with people Luhnow believed would be equally innovative and buy into what he was trying to do.

And then the Astros started building through the draft. The 2012 edition brought Carlos Correa in the first round and later Lance McCullers Jr., two key figures on the roster that will face the Dodgers.

In 2014, progressive-thinking Hinch was hired as the manager and then things really started to move in a positive direction.

There was a playoff appearance in 2015, a step back in 2016 and now this: A 101-win that allowed the Astros to win the AL West by 21 games followed by playoff victories over the Yankees and Red Sox.

Eventually the questions about the Astros methodology relented as the results told their own story. And as Hinch rightfully points out, they didn’t win the American League pennant on algorithms and spreadsheets alone.

Case in point No. 1: Even though Jose Altuve had lived through the bad times of those two 100-loss seasons, there was recognition that he had the type of personality that could be central to a winning rebuild.

Case in point No. 2: When it became clear that they had a shot at winning it all this year, starter Justin Verlander was acquired from the Detroit Tigers on Sept. 1. Verlander was named the MVP of the ALCS for his two stellar winning outings while Altuve’s bat was all over each of the four victories over the Yankees.

The marriage of analytics and players that can pass the eye test seems to be working rather well for a team that is defined by its versatility. In the ALCS, stellar defence and aggressive base-running complemented outstanding excellent pitching that allowed the Astros to survive a brief spell of iciness at the plate.

“For us, we’re people and we care about people,” Hinch said. “We’ve certainly been at the front line of a lot of things that are progressive and it’s gotten us to a really good place.

“We still have instincts. We still rely on the chemistry that’s build in the clubhouse. We went and got veterans. We usually do the opposite of what the rest of the industry is doing to continue to move and try to find a competitive advantage.

“But that desire to win, that old school traditional desire to win as as big in this building as it is in any building in the big leagues.”

Verlander, who has only been in the fold for 53 days quickly recognized and bought in to what the Astros were all about. He knew they were serious contenders in the AL — a big reason he waived his no trade from the Tigers.

“(Luhnow’s) fingerprints are all over this team,” Verlander said. “I think he’s done a fantastic job building an organization from the ground up. I think he got a lot of flak early on here with the Astros. It wasn’t conventional thinking.

“But the proof is in the pudding … here we are.”

FINALLY, IT'S BEST VERSUS BEST

The historic matchup of the Yankees and Dodgers didn’t materialize but the alternative has its attraction.

With the Astros winning Game 7 of the ALCS here on Saturday night, it set up a World Series date with the Dodgers beginning Tuesday night in Los Angeles. And for the first time since 1970, the Fall Classic will feature a pair of teams that each one 100 or more games in the regular season.

It’s just the eighth time in MLB history that such accomplished regular-season teams have made it to the championship. The Dodgers earned home-field advantage with their 104-win campaign while the Astros clocked in at 101.

In 1970 it was the 102-win Cincinnati Reds facing the 108-win Baltimore Orioles with the latter winning in five games.

The Dodgers and Astros are meeting for the first time marking the fourth consecutive year that the World Series features combatants who have never faced each other.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers have been established as the betting favourites to capture the series at odds of minus-160 (wager $160 to profit $100.) Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers is expected to face the Astros Dallas Keuchel in Game 1.